Rainbow Camp provides a welcoming space for LGBTQ2+ youth to be themselves and feel safe. “For many it’s the first time that they can present or be who they want to be, and that’s so empowering for them,” Rainbow Camp founder Harry Stewart told Sault This Week. One camper who had signed up in January wrote on the sign-up sheet that it was “the first place they would feel safe.” That camper has since died by suicide. That’s an unfortunate reality faced by many LGBTQ2+ youth and demonstrates the importance of offering Rainbow Camp, Stewart said. The camp, in Thessalon, first ran in 2012 with 14 campers aged 15 to 17. The following year it went up to 30 campers, then 35 in 2014 to 2016, then increased again in 2017 to two weeks with 35 campers per week, and last year moved up to 35 campers per week for three weeks. Young people attending are local and from distant communities. This year Rainbow Camp organizers plan to take in 40 campers per week for three weeks, as well as 10 Leaders-in-Training. They hope to bump it up to four weeks of camp in 2020, with two weeks for younger campers and two for older. The camp is set up in three “streams” so that campers can decide what they’d like to do – arts and crafts, sports, or education, Stewart said. They can mix them up or focus on just one for the whole week. Some of the activities and educational classes offered include sex ed, Trans101, make-up, journal writing, yoga, self-defence, safe sex, canoeing, swimming, and sports. Registration for Rainbow Camp campers is $350 and $500 for Leaders In Training, but the organization offers financial support to those who need it so finances don’t prevent someone who wants to attend. However, in order for Rainbow Camp to be able to host all of the registered campers, it has to raise about $100,000 by the end of June, Stewart said. Right now funding sits at about $16,000 and a matching grant will become accessible once donations reach $20,000. Rainbow Camp gets support from many different sources, though it’s not always consistent, Stewart said. For example, last year TD Canada Trust made a surprise $50,000 donation as part of its #TDThanksYou customer appreciation day. This year the camp hasn’t had any such major donors, but has had other groups host fundraisers for them. On June 1, Toronto’s LGBTQ+ chorus Singing Out held a concert to raise funds for Rainbow Camp, while Unifor ran a benefit in Kitchener on the same day. But individual donors are important to the success of Rainbow Camp. Support and donations come from all over Canada and even occasionally the U.S., Stewart said. Campers and parents give the Rainbow Camp positive reviews. “Parents say their kids come back so happy,” he said. And Stewart himself has noticed a change in the last three or four years in parents’ awareness of their children’s sexuality and things like pronoun preference. “We still see parents that just don’t get it, but more that do.” Though the majority of Rainbow Camp participants are LGBTQ2+ youth, allies also could attend the camps, he said. “We had one camper who had two moms and they brought him up to camp and just dropped him off – they didn’t even tell him he was going to camp,” said Stewart with a laugh. “You could tell on the first day he wasn’t very happy, but on the second day he said he’d been to other camps and never been able to talk about his moms. It was the first place it hadn’t been a big deal.” The invitation to allies is also there in case someone wants to attend but isn’t “out” to their parents, he said. It gives them the ability to attend camp without having to come out if they aren’t ready. Rainbow Camp has become fairly well known across Canada, especially with comedian Colin Mochrie and his wife as spokespeople. Stewart said Rainbow Camp had hired them in 2016 to come to Sault Ste. Marie to do a fundraiser, but because they’d been booked through a booking agent, the Mochries had no idea what they were here to support. When they found out, they were thrilled to be supporting an important LGBTQ2+ organization, being parents to a transgender child themselves. The couple has since created a promotional video and held a fundraiser at Second City in support of Rainbow Camp. Any individuals interested in volunteering to run a session – such as teaching a crafting skill – can reach out to Stewart via the camp’s website www.welcomefriend.ca . The camp has already filled all the counsellor positions, having received more applications than they could use. But the real need is for donations, Stewart said. People can donate online via the website, or can reach out to him. “We really are saving lives, so if we have to cut a week of camp because we can’t get funding, it’s just that many more kids we’re not helping,” said Stewart.